Shattered Innocence: Transmigrated Into a Novel as an Extra

Chapter 949: Hmm….

“…What were you two doing?”

Elara’s throat tightened. Too quickly, she rose—though her legs still trembled, her cloak clinging damp to her shoulders. The words lodged somewhere between her chest and her mouth. She wanted to say training, or nothing, but none of it felt right. Instead, what bloomed inside her was something unfamiliar—sharp, defensive, like a hand curling protectively around something fragile.

Why defensive? She didn’t know.

But she felt it.

Before the silence betrayed her, Lucavion’s voice cut in. Smooth. Effortless. “Just some sparring. Nothing much.”

He rolled the word sparring lazily on his tongue, as if it were obvious, as if the frost curling in fractured spirals around them were nothing more than chalk lines drawn for practice.

Selphine’s gaze sharpened. “That… doesn’t look like just sparring.”

Lucavion’s grin flickered, sharp as glass. He spread his arms wide, the faint shimmer of [Iceprints] still glowing faintly against his coat. “Well,” he said, tilting his head toward Elara, “our Elowyn is pretty wild. I can tell you that at least.”

Aurelian’s composure cracked first. Just barely—but enough. His eyes flicked between the frost-marked ground and Elara, and then to Lucavion with his grin and careless tone. A faint color rose at his cheekbones, betraying more than he likely realized.

Selphine caught it instantly. Her brows lifted, slow, deliberate, a sound curling from her lips like the draw of a blade.

“Hooo…”

It wasn’t disbelief.

It wasn’t even judgment.

It was sharper—interest mixed with something bordering on amusement.

Lucavion leaned into it with all the ease of a man who thrived in the fire he’d started. He turned, grin gleaming, and with a lazy flick of his hand—winked at Elara.

Her face twitched. A sharp pull of her mouth, the flare in her eyes quick and unguarded. Annoyance. Clear and unhidden.

Lucavion’s smirk only widened, as if her irritation were the prize he’d been aiming for all along.

The silence stretched again, thin and dangerous. Selphine’s arms folded tighter, eyes narrowing just enough to suggest she was filing this away for later. Aurelian cleared his throat, attempting to disguise the flush with a poorly-timed adjustment of his collar.

Elara, jaw tight, pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders.

Elara’s breath hitched.

Something in her chest pulled tight—too tight, like a knot yanked past the point of comfort. Selphine’s expression. Aurelian’s silence. Lucavion’s infuriating smirk.

It pressed down all at once.

And suddenly—too suddenly—

“We weren’t doing anything wrong!”

The words burst from her, sharper than a blade, loud enough to cut the quiet like shattering glass.

Everyone froze.

Even Lucavion’s grin faltered, just slightly.

Elara stood stiff, her shoulders drawn tight, her eyes wide—not with fear, but with something messier. Heat flared in her cheeks again, and her breath came short.

“I mean—” she continued, but the strength in her voice wavered now, the crack beneath it surfacing. “It was just sparring. I asked. I wanted to… I needed to get something out of my head. He just—” She threw a look at Lucavion, sharp and almost pleading, “—he just helped. That’s all.”

Silence answered her.

Selphine tilted her head, curious now. Aurelian’s mouth parted, unsure whether to respond. And Lucavion… Lucavion watched her—not amused anymore, not smiling. Just watching.

Elara’s hands curled into fists.

’I didn’t need to shout.’

’I didn’t need to say anything.’

So why did it feel like she had to? Why did it feel like that moment—being seen, all of them looking—made something in her snap

She exhaled once. Shakily.

Her voice dropped, the sharp edge gone, leaving only that awkward, defensive hush.

“It wasn’t anything more than that.”

And yet, her heart thudded against her ribs as if she’d confessed to something much worse.

She turned her gaze to the ground, not in shame—but because if she looked at anyone right now, she might explode again.

Or worse.

Break.

As for Lucavion, he watched Elara for another long breath, his expression unreadable now. The sharpness had faded from his grin. The teasing edge, dulled. Whatever heat he’d stoked with his antics—he let it fall away like embers into snow.

He shifted his weight, brushing the frost off his coat with a flick of his hand, as if that might smooth over the silence she’d left behind.

Then, casually, like nothing at all had just happened, he said, “Indeed. That was the case.”

His voice had settled—level and indifferent again. The Lucavion they all knew. Too calm. Too untouchable.

“There’s a reason I’m this strong, you know.”

Selphine gave him a look, one brow twitching. “Ugh. You egoist.”

“I’m not flaunting,” he replied, too easily. “Just stating facts.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Elara mumbled, dragging her cloak tighter again, as if it could shield her from the heat still blooming in her cheeks.

Lucavion’s smirk returned—but this time, smaller. Smoother. Like it wasn’t for anyone else but her.

He turned without ceremony, stepping back across the ice-laced courtyard. The prints still faintly glowing on his coat caught the early morning light, casting a shimmer over his retreating figure.

Then—just before he vanished into the treeline—

He glanced back.

Winked.

And with that same damn smirk curving his mouth, he said, “You made it worth my time.”

A beat passed.

“I guess that was a given, though.”

FOOSH—

And with a sudden gust of wind, cloak flaring and frost kicking up behind him, he was gone.

The yard settled back into its stillness, the frost curling in faint, dissolving threads where Lucavion’s presence had lingered. His last words hung like smoke, too light to grab hold of yet heavy enough to choke the silence he left behind.

Elara stayed rooted where she was, cloak clutched around her shoulders. Her chest still rose and fell too quickly, every breath scraping the raw edges of her composure.

Selphine’s lips curved, slow and deliberate. Arms crossed, she tilted her head just enough for the pale light to catch in her eyes. “Well,” she said, her voice carrying that sharpness that cut deeper because it sounded almost amused, “that didn’t look like ’just sparring’ to me.”

Elara’s gaze snapped to her, but Selphine didn’t relent.

“Hm. No, not at all,” Selphine continued, her words lazy but aimed. “It looked more like… oh, I don’t know. Two people a little too eager to leave marks on each other.”

“That’s not—”

But Selphine only raised her hand, silencing her with a faint flick of her wrist. Not mocking—controlled. Almost surgical.

Inside, though, her thoughts threaded sharper than her tone.

’She shouted. Defensive. That’s not like her. Elowyn always guards her words—measured, calculated. But around him? She snapped. She broke.’

Her eyes narrowed slightly, watching the flush in Elara’s face that refused to fade.

’It’s not just sparring. It’s not even about the fight. Something about him pushes her off balance, and she doesn’t even realize it.’

Aurelian, beside her, cleared his throat softly. He didn’t speak right away—he rarely did—but his gaze stayed fixed on Elara with a focus that felt heavier than Selphine’s barbed amusement. His tone, when he finally spoke, was quieter, almost thoughtful.

“You don’t usually let someone close enough to leave you like that.”

Elara stiffened, her hands curling tighter in her sleeves. “You’re reading too much into it.”

“Perhaps,” Aurelian said, though his eyes didn’t waver.

Selphine let out a soft hum, amused again, but inside the edges of her thoughts cut deeper still.

’She didn’t tell him. That much is clear. Lucavion spoke as though they’d only met here, in the Academy. But she… she knows him. Knew him. Before all of this. She hides it.’

Selphine’s eyes lingered on Elara, the corner of her mouth twitching—not into a smile, but something sharper, almost private.

’So that’s it…’ she thought. ’That’s why Master said her identity was… problematic.’